Techniques Used For Selection

PSYCH-105 Industrial Psychology

Chapter 15: Recruitment and Selection

Unit 1

Unit 2

Unit 3

Unit 4

Appendix

Techniques Used for Selection

For the purpose of selecting the suitable candidates for a particular job, various techniques can be employed. 

1. Application Blanks

It is very common practice today. Some application may ask for simple information such as name, age, educational qualifications and details of work experience. The most important thing to consider while making the application blanks is not only the relevant information needed form the applicant but also what use they are put by the personnel officer once such information is received.

2. Weighted Application Blank

The concept of weighted application blanks (WAB) is simple and sound. The procedure involves selecting an employee characteristic to be measure, identifying questions that predict the desired employee behavior, determining the questions’ relative predictive power, assigning weighted values to each relevant question and scoring each applicant’s complete job application form according to the scoring key developed. It is possible to determine for a given job application form the total score, below which a future employee might be a bad risk for the company and above which the applicants is likely to be a successful employee. In organization, an internal training should be provided for using WAB. It might save a considerable amount of money and is very useful for the organization. The greatest advantage of WAB is that it is possible to compare the scores of applicants and choose those who score the maximum. Another important advantage is the objectivity it introduces in the selection process. As the weights of each item in the blank are pre-decided on the basis of experience and the methods applied are quantitative, there is likelihood of personal and subjective biases entering in the selection. 

3. Life History Method

Many psychologists and researchers are now a day interested in life history method. The assumption is that the success in job demands upon the life history of candidates’ experiences. Also, the scope of life history methods is much wider than that of application blanks. In developing this method, the psychologists tend to examine a wide range of life history items and they relate these items with the candidate’s success in a particular job. Perhaps the most important contribution towards this method was given by standard oils of Indiana, where various aspects of bio-data are successfully linked with job success. The important thing to note about the life history method is that this method aims at selecting people on the basis of their personal traits, which are in turn related to their job success. The information on these items is usually obtained by administering lengthy questionnaires and then deciding how many personal characteristics or traits needed by a specific job are possessed by a person. 

4. Work History Method

One of the best predictors of future work success is the past work performance of an individual. But it is very unfortunate that in very few selection decisions the past performance of the individual is taken into consideration. Many researchers agree that the performance shown by a trainee in past 6 – 12 months can reveal a lot about him. It also shows how well he will develop himself as a future employee of the company and also how long will he stay with the company. The work history method is administered on the candidate systematically prior to his entering in the company and it is not necessary that he should be a trainee for the sometime in the company.

5. Reference and Recommendation Letter

In some organizations, a job applicant is required to produce some sort of evidence that they performed satisfactorily well when they were employed with some other company or organization. Such evidence is usually provided in the form of letters of references and recommendation by the previous employer to the prospective employer. Such letters usually contain information regarding the job title, the type of job given, salary, performance, virtues and the duration for work with the company.

Author – Dr. Niyati Garg

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